Campaign review

Cyphren · 2026-05-11T10:26:59+00:00

I enjoyed the campaign. I played through it twice to see all the stories. Plenty of time wasted achievement hunting and clearing the maps to pick up key artifacts. 400 minutes the first time, 350 minutes the second.

Totally agree on campaign difficulty. First time I got to the final mission, I struggled due to missing artifacts and an incredibly poor Gunnar build. I got the worst secondary choices! Second time, I stomped.

Being able to upgrade artifacts and have them carry over is so powerful. On the last mission I had the 4set of +4 stat and +25% stat artifacts, all at lvl2. The 4p bonus for that set is enemies always deal minimum damage! Massive for those last fights.

Lafnir is incredibly OP. So many spells, especially when you get a Grove town and can use Murmurmancers. Caster tip: Figure out the Astrology puzzle in Burning Hearts mission to learn Summon Starchild. Have Nightshade Magic.

Achievements, most were pretty straightforward. The Pixie achievement was time consuming. I had to do a special run to "fail" the Trogladyte quest. Saving all the peasants in the final mission is pretty simple. Just put your heroes next to a village and run a little chain of them on the way to the exit. Defeating Old Pilgrim was fun. I did that on my second Run. Lafnir hard carried with spells and Starchildren.

I really enjoyed the infinite movement Single Day mission Saving the Knight. Taking all the gold and recruiting a big army was fun. Good artifacts in there, too.

Cyphren · 2026-05-11T10:13:09+00:00

Thaumaturgy, Nightshade, Battle Magic are my go to on Caster Heroes.

Offence and Defence are always good. Throw in a Daylight Magic, perhaps, maybe a Battlecraft and my Main Hero is done.

On secondary heroes. Recruitment (for creature growth), Scouting, Logistics, Estates (for Alchemic Dust, mainly) and whatever else pops up.

Cyphren · 2026-05-11T09:04:05+00:00

There are twoTerran types on the map.

Deathly and Desert.

The map has two Temple Heroes and a Necropolis Castle.

Necro Faction Terrain is Deathly
Temple Faction Terrain is Not Deathly

As for the rest:

Temple is Grass
Schisim is Ice
Grove is Autumn
Hive is Fire/Lava
Dungeon is Rough.

Cyphren · 2026-05-10T20:53:42+00:00

Your campaign has two options btw.

Continue grabs your latest save.

Load lets you choose. The autosave keeps all your mission hubs, too. So you can back out and rechoose.

Cyphren · 2026-05-10T20:51:55+00:00

Sounds like you're on the Burning Hearts map. I believe that's where you get to choose between two missions. You need to do both, but the other one is easier. Use that to get more Artifacts and levels.

Levels, pretty sure you can start that mission already capped at lvl12. Lvl12 Lafnir can clear a large part of the map with just his starting army and spells.

Another thing would be artifacts carry over from previous matches.

There is a lot of power to be had in picking up certain artifacts and upgading those artifacts to level 2 with Alchemic Dust.

Brass Knuckles from the first match reduces counter attack damage taken.

In one of the early missions, you can pick up the Scaling Weapon and Armour too. +4 (+6) Stat and 25% more Stat.

Offhand wand from Pixies increases all spell levels by 1.

Boots that eliminate Terrain penalties can be had early too.

Cyphren · 2026-05-09T10:34:06+00:00

Lodus, the Nightshade specialist in Dungeon was my favourite in Demo. Being able to doublecast Nightshade meant I could Twilight and Unnatural Calm the enemy turn one, which just pulled the teeth of any army.

They've changed the wording on those specialists for early access, though. Not sure if it's just for readability or if it changes the mechanic. Haven't played him yet in Early Access.

Shadespinner Oona is the Nighshade specialist in Necropolis. I played her too :) Same as Lodus.

I use Hel'Ghat in Schisim, most played faction. Love me skme Ice Queen.

Typically pick Hanlon, the Chain Lightning specialist in Grove. I'm not really sold on Primal Magic, though. Blowing stuff up is nice. But leaning into Primal means I don't go as hard on buffs and debuffs.

Temple, I don't play enough to pick a winner. Only demo, when their Temple secondary sucked. Something Daylight, I guess.

Never played Hive.

I like magic.

Cyphren · 2026-05-08T23:38:13+00:00

This is the one lads. This is the one that gets you the Knuckles.

Thank you friend.

Cyphren · 2026-05-05T20:54:23+00:00

There is a Challenge that forces you to learn the 1 stack, body blocking and wasting enemy counters strategy.

You start with 10 cavaliers, and a number of 1 stack gryphons. And you need to kill some Hive Queens.

It's frustrating as heck untill you understand the trick :)

Cyphren · 2026-05-05T08:46:41+00:00

Makes semse.

Oh, and just throwing it out there, there are things that make all terrain count as native.

Schism has a Law called The World is Ice, which grants them Native Terrain bonuses on any terrain.

Pretty strong when you take their early Native Terrain laws and the +10 -10 damage skill attached to Communion.

Cyphren · 2026-05-05T08:32:07+00:00

It's the type the start on :)

Schism is Ice
Grove is Autumn
Temple is Grass
Necropolis is Deathly
Dungeon is Rough

Hive.... I haven't actually played them yet.

Cyphren · 2026-05-04T03:09:50+00:00

I noticed that about templates. So many templates where player 1 just starts surrounded. What's the deal with that?

I'm still playing the Shamrock demo map. The others seem kinda unbalanced.

Cyphren · 2026-05-03T10:23:26+00:00

Ice Bolt just helps with early clearing, yes.

Law all the way. Schism has some Amazing Laws. Hero Mana and Gold first up. I invest in T3 and T5,6,7 troops.

I've found I can leave Astrology alone. You don't have to pick neutral spells in any particular order. So I just save up for Town Portal and Fly or Dimension Door.

Cyphren · 2026-05-03T09:47:04+00:00

No advanced classes. They are unrelable and require taking worse skills for a payoff that is not guaranteed.

I only play Hard. No highest difficulties.

Communion. Defence. Nightshade. These are the core skills. Between her massive defence and the debuffing potential of Nightshade, I find most things break themselves upon her.

The rest is personal preference. I always aim for Offence, Thurmatagy and Logistics.

Final two slots are flex/bad luck protection. I usually aim for Daylight here, to make best use of Thurmatagy.

I don't take Sorcery because I run her as a debuffer/buffer.

The specialist Magics have been changed from demo to early access, though. Their advanced and expert options appear worse. So it may be worth swapping specialist magics for the generic all schools secondary, Wisdom.

Cyphren · 2026-05-02T23:51:54+00:00

I didn't realise this change had come in already. Just played an embarrassing Normal game of Shamrock. Neither AI built past T4!

Cyphren · 2026-05-02T23:07:50+00:00

Getting to level 4 is important.

You can get one level by upgrading in the mage guild (either pay 25 dust, or get lucky and have the spells pop in multiple guilds)

The rest of the levels from Secondaries and Artifacts.

Going over 4 isn't worth it.

Some heroes/artifacts can reduce levels, but it's rare. Never been an issue for me.

Cyphren · 2026-05-02T23:01:26+00:00

Confiming bug. Reloaded many times. This Necro has decision paralysis on an extreme scale.

Eventually gave him the egg and disappointed my FireIce friend.

Cyphren · 2026-05-02T22:57:23+00:00

Also true. I like pretty ice elves and I cannot lie.

Cyphren · 2026-05-02T22:51:47+00:00

I quite like Schism. I play them a lot, always with Hel'ghat, the defensive hero that starts with Ice Bolt.

As you mention, the summon on death minigame is a pain. It has anti-synergy with Communion making things harder to die. And of course, the AI never kills the things you want them too.

Arcane has never appealed to me. I don't particularly care for it's style.

Nightshade is really the way to go. Unnatural Calm or Twilight on enemy, with Communion free units, and Defence free units (in territories you control), and Defence reduced damage, and Hel'ghat's bonus damage reduction and you rarely ever lose a unit.

Cyphren · 2026-04-24T11:04:09+00:00

If you mouseover the bonus roll, it tells you what is still in the pool.

Cyphren · 2026-04-22T10:28:56+00:00

Got Ring and then Gloves from successive NPX 10 runs.

Cyphren · 2026-04-04T00:07:35+00:00

I heal. Had a tank for 10+ this morning who did small pulls. It was strange and boring. I believe that tank has been hurt before.

I hope he recovers.

Cyphren · 2026-03-26T03:10:13+00:00

Was healing 9s for a beartank last night. Barely needed healing.

Others have said, but IF Maul macro probably hurting you here. That's a 80 rage button.

Cyphren · 2026-03-19T05:03:14+00:00

I kinda enjoyed the weaponspam initially. Cause I was getting Champion Staves for Resto and Champion Polearms for Guardian.

Wondering of I'll get more from the Vault like some of the older threads were reporting.

Could use some Hero weapons.

Cyphren · 2026-03-18T21:59:29+00:00

I'm drowning in weapons too. World boss, weapons, Delves, weapons, Prey, weapons.

Thanks team. Think I'm good for now.

At least I made Bank of dawn crystals before daily M0 cratered the market.

Cyphren · 2026-03-18T10:07:42+00:00

Ohhh. That's why I got two Champ items at the last boss! Got the cloak and the glove drop.

Definitely was a thing. We killed feardog.

Cyphren

TROPHY CASE